To wonder why so many teachers want to quit

[ChazsBrilliantAttitude]

Inspired by other threads but I didn't want to derail.

What is going on in education that is making teaching so stressful?

I work in the City and you don't see too many people quitting with stress even though the work can be stressful. Certainly, not the numbers you see in teaching.

As a parent and a taxpayer I want some serious answers to the issues raised in this thread. It is a national scandal and confirms my fears about the education in this country. The most frustrating thing is knowing that it really doesn't have to be like this. The whole system is grossly over complicated and bureaucratic and this is impacting on our children and their futures.

Mehitabel6 you were being kind, but were perpetuating the mindless requirement for written marking when verbal feedback could have ben done instead. it is contributing to the 'proof', arse-covering culture.
If the absent teacher set work that did not require marking it would not be his/her burden anyway, and maybe next time they will be smarter in the plans they leave.

I hate being ill in term-time, because if I'm that ill I need to stay at home, I still have to set cover work.

So I've dictated cover work to my DH in between throwing up into a bucket.

Last week I felt too ill to set cover work the night before, so I went in and taught. It was easier to teach when ill than set the cover work.

And now we have supply teachers complaining about the cover work being left! Of course it's not great, I'm ill!

Being off ill is so much harder. Plus I have had too many times when cover supervisors ( rare for proper supply teachers to be used at my school) actually do work set or do it properly. If I am out on a course I prepare my students the lesson before but them students get confused as an unqualified but thinks they are a brilliant maths teacher tries to teach it differently to me and confuses them all!

We now have sets of books of fundamental maths skills we use for cover work.

No one likes covering my lessons (drama) and often I go back to school to signs of obvious chaos.

Far from just binning the Workload Survey, I believe Ms Morgan said it was so useful that the change she wants to put in place is to have another one in a few years' time.

Queen I call bullshit on SENCOs collecting Leadership Scale pay for shuffling paperwork in an office, which could easily be done by an administrator, while SEN funding could be paying for (long-suffering minimum wage) TAs/ SIAs / EAL support.

Kids across the country are crying & struggling in class & their parents are at their wits' end due to the lack of support because people like you are on the gravy train.

And you seriously expect sympathy ?

Doesn't happen in the private sector, the £ is spent on the kids who need it & outcomes are much better.

Shebird As a parent and a taxpayer I want some serious answers to the issues raised in this thread. It is a national scandal

Hahahhahahhahahahahahaaaa you will get NO answers. NO single politician gives a SHINY SHIT!

I totally believe Queen. My friend is in the same position. Much cheaper to get a member of SLT to do time-consuming provision mapping than a TA with limited hours. Many people in academy schools are told their jobs are moving onto the leadership scale precisely so that the 1260 hours limit can be lifted. As SLT there are no limits on the hours demanded of you. And the pay is no more on very low leadership scales. Well worth it for money grabbing academies.

I wouldn't have league tables and inspectors. I would have advisers.

I agree with having one exam board.

Iguana - you're right, no one cares. In fact, our sec of state was yesterday intervening in the tax credits thing, telling the Lords they mustn't vote it down, rather than sticking to her own brief. It's never been clearer that she's Cameron's lapdog - and that Education is the bone they threw her, rather than her passion. Say what you like about Gove (and I could say a LOT, believe me!) but he did genuinely care about Education.

Please tell me the majority of these problems are specifically in the English school system..... I'm thinking very seriously about retraining as a high school teacher in Scotland as my current industry has basically been sold down the river by the Govt and i am stuck in a job i hate with little or no opportunity to move on.

Will i be jumping from the frying pan into the fire??

Say what you like about Gove (and I could say a LOT, believe me!) but he did genuinely care about Education.

Utter misguided and wrong but he did genuinely care. He thought what he was doing was for the best.

Say what you like about Gove (and I could say a LOT, believe me!) but he did genuinely care about Education.

Nope, he cares about his own political position, if he cared about education he wouldn't have forced through implemented policies that where not backed by research and are detrimental to the majority of pupils.

I have been a teacher for 3 years and half a term, and a few weeks ago I handed my notice in. I will never be a fulltime class teacher again. Here's why - in no particular order:

1. With all the planning and marking, I am expected to do I have calculated that I work in excess of 65 hours a week. I have no time to spend with my own kids, spend every evening and one day at the weekend working, and have no life. Some days at school I am so rushed off my feet that I don't have time to eat.

1. Behaviour. I have several "high profile" children in my class of 29 that make teaching the lessons I have so laboriously planned impossible. I am sworn at, verbally and physically threatened and laughed at on a daily basis. Their parents don't care. SLT don't care either. Last week one girl threatened to punch me, walked out of the class (all I'd done was insist that she do some work by the way), only to be returned 5 minutes later by SLT. This girl spends her whole time in my class shouting abuse at me and her classmates. SLT's response? Try moving her to a different place in the classroom. And let's not forget, I gave up half my weekend with my own kids planning the lessons that she and the other 2/3 kids like her ruin on a daily basis for this.

1. The academy chain that I work for. An organisation full of mindless bureaucrats, most of which have no educational background at all - or whose time in teaching was so very long ago, or limited, that they have absolutely no idea what it's like to be a teacher in 21st century Britain. I was observed by one last week who was last in the classroom in a different country over 30 years ago. I could go on and on about this particular chain and their questionable financial record and habit of hiring executives with dodgy pasts but I won't because it would take too long.

1. Observations. We are not trusted to do our jobs. Heaven forbid we be left to get on with it, the kids would probably end up doing word-searches all day long. SLT constantly drop in - sometimes up to 4 times a day and stand there watching me, clipboard in hand, trying to deal with the kids I've mentioned above, and then tell me my lesson "requires improvement" because actually I did get Child A to sit down and do some work, and actually the rest of the class was working really hard as well, but whilst my back was turned Child B was looking out of the window and daydreaming for 2 minutes. I'm not making this up, btw.

1. Parents. One parent complains constantly because I don't set enough homework. Another complains because I set too much. A third set didn't bother to make an appointment for Parents' Evening despite having the letter for over a week, then turned up at 8pm (I had appointments booked until 7:30 then went home because my youngest had had a febrile convulsion that evening and because I had no more bookings I thought that'd be ok). Cue angry complaint letter to the Head that I hadn't waited for them on the off chance that they might turn up.

I could go on and on. I am only one of many. I resigned last year but my school begged me to stay because they couldn't find a replacement. This year, I am going for good, along with 3 others. This country is facing a crisis in education of unprecedented levels, and this is the reason I have sat here typing this on a Monday in half term. The first day, btw since school broke up on Friday that I have been able to surface from the fog of exhaustion. Parents need to know what is going on. Here's my voice, it's just one of many. This government will tell you that there's no teacher shortage. They're lying.

I was reading a book about the Scandinavian countries recently. Their schools often come top in studies. In Finland, which has often been cited as having the best education system in the world, no more money than average is spent on education. Teachers are paid averagely for Western Europe, class sizes aren't particularly small, children don't don't start school until they are 7 and spend only an average of four hours a day in school. There is comparatively little homework. Formal testing is pretty much non-existent until GCSE age.

But... teachers are highly-regarded and teaching is seen as one of the most prestigious careers a graduate can choose. There is no listing of schools' performance, no league tables. And, astonishingly, there is only 4 percent difference in performance between the very best school and the very worst - so no postcode lottery. There are also not really any private schools.

I resigned last year but my school begged me to stay because they couldn't find a replacement.

This ^ from Lara5N

I have seen this increasingly over the last couple of years, the inability to replace good teachers, so the school has to try and get someone who wants to leave to stay.

If teaching is so good, if there is no recruitment crisis, then why is this the case?

This thread had really made me think about my role as a supply teacher.

I fall into the - I feel sorry for the class teacher- category. I will deep mark books, stay late to do different jobs that need doing etc. Because of this I am always in demand and usually requested. Pretty much every school has offered me a position. However, the idea that I am not doing anyone any favours by perpetuating this cycle has really resonated with me. Food for thought.

The reason I left for supply was because I was working in a school that was clearly up for being made an academy and the staff that worked there that had dependant children were on their knees with stress. I left before it happened to me.

33 years teaching in inner-city primary schools here. I remember times pre-Ofsted, pre-National Curriculum, pre-SATs! Hard to believe now. We planned what we believed would work for the kids; assessed in a way that helped us and parents; read stories daily; and taught maths all day, or D&T (with cross-curricular links) all week if we were on a project that excited their learning. We were trusted. Parents respected us. Hard to believe now...
What's really getting to me now are the latest 3 things:

1. Expectations have suddenly increased again. KS1 & KS2 doing maths and grammar concepts that I did in secondary school.
2. The assessment system has been removed - no more levels! But nothing is put in its place. We are in the dark trying to create our own system in which Ofsted will still want to see proof of progress. Children will be 'Below', 'At' or 'Exceeding Expectations'. A non-academic child could be labelled 'Below Expectations' for their entire school career! It appears to show NO progress! And is very demotivating.
3. Ofsted Framework's changed again! (seems like an annual occurrence these days.) So we have to ensure we're in a position to answer their new questions and meet higher expectations.

And also, of course, there is less money in schools. A promoted post disappears due to 'budget constraints.' The post's responsibilities are divided out between other staff (who are not happy!). New children arrive every week in our overcrowded school. Many come straight from overseas with no English. We're expected to integrate them into class, and somehow teach them enough English and the rest of the curriculum so they can take their SATs a couple of years later. There's no extra support for them. Children (and parents) have more challenging behaviour. We're not respected. I try to support younger staff but some won't last long. Lots come from Australia, Canada, USA, Ireland and Poland anyway, and won't stay forever. I work 8am till 6pm, and I still enjoy the time teaching. I've been regularly rated 'Outstanding' for lessons. But all the rest of it is killing me. I have stress-related health issues. I'm planning an early exit from the job.

BUT- are we 'preaching to the converted' on this thread? Teachers and some sympathetic parents? We need to make it more public...

We need to make it more public...

^ This. In some sort of sane, rational way in which the Govites cannot sideline us for being not-so-bright prudes in pleated skirts wittering about not getting home in time for Countdown.

My best friend is a 'junior' doctor- they have been so much braver in opposing the crap that is happening to them.

Incidentally WHY is there such an obsession with PISA rankings? I have taught in Japanese High Schools -who always score highly on the PISA assessments - it's not an education system I'd want my children to go through (and contrary to popular belief there are plenty of Japanese schools where behaviour is an issue). I don't believe being good at those tests tells you anything about the quality of education at all.

And if they are going to obsess about it - why not look closer to home? Ireland comes ahead of the UK - and as demonstrated on this thread doesn't have the ridiculously rigid paperwork heavy system that is destroying teaching in Britain (albeit Scotland may not be as bad).

Oh and one other thing I remember we used to do in the 80's. This may sound corny but we used to laugh. With the kids. In lessons. No time for humour now. It's not a Success Criteria on the lesson plan.

As a supply teacher, I've recently started covering maternity leave in a Year 6 class. I agreed to do it until Christmas. The lady I'm covering has decided she'd like to extend her maternity leave for another 2 terms. Although the HT asked me to continue I've had to say No for all of the many reasons stated above.

I have 2 young children and have had to either forego spending time with them at the weekends or forego completing marking. Each scenario has had me in tears.

Next time I'm asked to take on more hours I will think again. My family comes first.

Are things better in the independent sector? For staff, pupils and parents?
NHS dentist here and certainly private Dentistry looks much better both for Dentists and patients.